Study: Spankings detrimental to young kids

A new study found that children who were spanked as 1-year-olds behaved more aggressively at age 2 than those who were spared the punishment. They also performed worse on cognitive tests at age 3. Being spanked at age 2 did not predict more aggressive behaviors at age 3.

“We’re talking about infants and toddlers, and I think that just, cognitively, they just don’t understand enough about right or wrong or punishment to benefit from being spanked,” Lisa Berlin, the study’s lead author and research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University, told CNN.

Researchers examined data on 2,5000 children from low-income families. Prior research has found that parents who spank are more likely to be younger, single, less educated, depressed, and stressed. The practice is most commonly used among conservative Christians, parents who were spanked themselves, and those living in the Southern United States.

The study, which appears in the September/October issue of Child Development, also looked at the effects of verbal punishment–yelling, scolding or making derogatory comments at children. Verbal punishment was not associated with negative effects if the mother was also attentive, loving and supportive.

Even though the negative effects of spanking were modest, many pediatricians and child psychologists share a perspective on spanking confirmed by the study results.

Dr. James Sears, a Southern California pediatrician and coauthor of the best-selling The Baby Book, isn’t surprised by the study results.

“I have always said that kids who are spanked learn aggressiveness,” Dr. Sears says. “In the short term it might seem to do the job but it doesn’t result in mutual respect between parent and child.”

Because children mimic their parents behaviors, “it creates a model for using aggression,” Elizabeth Gershoff, an associate professor in the department of human development and family sciences at University of Texas at Austin, told HealthDay. “Spanking is just hitting.”

Not everyone agrees. Some experts view spanking as an effective form of discipline. Robert Larzelere, associate professor of human development and family science at Oklahoma State University, told CNN about a study he conducted proving that spanking was more effective than 10 of 13 alternative disciplinary methods for getting a child to behave or do as asked.

Much of the research on the subject does not clearly demonstrate a causal link, Larzelere said. For example, in comparing studies, children who are spanked and children who are taken to psychologists both are more likely to have aggressive behavior later, he said.

The best use of spanking, Larzelere said, is in children between the ages of 2 and 6 when milder discipline tactics, such as time out, fail.

“That’s why psychologists trained parents to use spanking that way for 25 years [from the] late ’60s to mid-’90s,” he said. Now, the trend of advice is away from spanking, but there’s not much hard evidence to support it, he said.

Regardless of your viewpoint, spanking seems to be one of those hot-button child-rearing topics that touches a nerve.

“It’s a parenting practice that has been around for a long time, and that’s also in transition,” Berlin told HealthDay. “In general, the use of spanking is going down. But there is also a contingent of people who really believe in it, who say that’s how they were raised and it’s a tradition they want to continue.”